A YOUNG Tory who joined controversial pressure group Cymuned two weeks ago is calling for Welsh to be taught in secondary schools throughout the UK.

Caernarfon Conservative Tony Evans, of Penrhyndeudraeth, wants Welsh as an optional subject at GCSE and A-level to encourage British students to learn as a radical way of preserving the threatened language.

Tony, 17, a Coleg Meirion Dwyfor student, says he wants the Tories and Cymuned to join forces to lobby the Government into implementing the language as a study option on a par with widely-taught modern subjects French, German and Spanish.

He said: "I came up with the idea in January when we had a meeting about the language and the economy, and I joined Cymuned two weeks ago because I think they have got some good ideas about the Welsh language.

"I talked to Cllr Simon Glyn about lobbying to get Welshtaught in schools across Britain, and he was quite welcoming, he liked what I told him.

"The economy and the Welsh language in Wales is in recession and we have to support both.

"I have a lot of respect for Simon Glyn, I think people have to listen to what he says. He has the right view that the Welsh language should be kept alive.

"I think that Cymuned and the Conservatives should come to an arrangement and work together on a number of issues."

He added: "Cymuned has got some good ideas and the Caernarfon Conservatives have got some good policies. The Conservatives have poured millions into Wales and has done more to protect the Welsh language than any other government."

Former Conservative parliamentary candidate Bronwen Naish said Caernarfon Conservatives would pressure their own party to make Welsh a language option in all secondary schools.

She said: "We have to think creatively about how we can foster the language, not just here in Wales, but also for all those who may have had to leave and settle elsewhere.

"Very often these people have been forced from their homeland by economic necessity and long for their children to be able to learn at least something of their ancestral language.

"Offering Welsh as a modern language as of right, would cost relatively little, would offer an interesting and wide-ranging subject, and enable those children of Welsh ancestry to feel part of an extraordinary, emotive and ancient language." Cymuned spokesman Simon Brooks said: "We welcome this idea as we see it as a step forward."